whats the best mobo

[jazool]

I am out looking for a goo mother board to host my athlon xp 2100 processor. I want stability, fast performance and hopefully virtually no lock ups. support for 6 channel audio built in and not crappy, agp 8x, ddr, and the lot.. I know there are a lot of mobos out there with this stuff, but i keep seeing to many snags about them in the reviews so far asus A7V333 has been the best reviewed even tho its KT333 if anyone has better insight or knows a better mobo, i'd like to get some advice on this.. oh plus i want support for 2 HDs, a dvdrom, cd writer and dvd-r burner.

 

[dzt]

that one is good, i use a lower spec (a7v266-c) for XP2000+ and there's no trouble. Try ABIT KX-333 or KD-400, it'll provide you best overclocking supports and stability.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: jazool
I am out looking for a goo mother board to host my athlon xp 2100 processor. I want stability, fast performance and hopefully virtually no lock ups. support for 6 channel audio built in and not crappy, agp 8x, ddr, and the lot.. I know there are a lot of mobos out there with this stuff, but i keep seeing to many snags about them in the reviews so far asus A7V333 has been the best reviewed even tho its KT333 if anyone has better insight or knows a better mobo, i'd like to get some advice on this.. oh plus i want support for 2 HDs, a dvdrom, cd writer and dvd-r burner.

Welcome to the Forums!

If you want support for five IDE devices (2 HDD, three optical) then you would want the A7V333-RAID variant, so you have enough IDE controllers for everything. However, the onboard sound is not utterly great, and it doesn't have AGP 8x (no big deal, AGP 8x has no real performance advantage so far). When its on-board PCI-based USB 2.0 controller is enabled, its PCI performance goes down big-time (I have one).

At this point, the top performers are the nForce2 boards but few of them come with more than two standard IDE controllers, which means a maximum of four drives. You could put in a PCI IDE controller to run the extra drive(s) if you decided to go this route.

 

[jazool]

hey thx for the help... very good suggestion on that extra pci slot.. it never occured to me. By the way I think ive changed my mind.. i'd rather go with the ASUS A7V8X VIA KT400 w/ audio, USB 2.0, its only marginally better than kt333, but the good news is it has the realtek 6 channel audio, spdif in/out.. and the anandtech labs have tested the realtek codec on ASUS A7N8X Deluxe on the most popular games and it passed the tests very well. so hopefully this might do the trick and overall this is only like 10 bucks more.. but that issue with the usb 2.0 controller.. is that motherboard specific.. or it just happens in general? i'd like some advice on that

 

[mechBgon]

Asus released new versions of the A7V333 that use the updated VIA southbridge which has integrated USB 2.0 instead of tacking on a PCI-based USB 2.0. These new variants are A7V333-X boards and there is more than one type. It may or may not fix the issue I described with mine.

The Realtek CODEC is used on the A7N8X-Deluxe, but not as the audio processor... on that board, it just translates the digital signal from nVidia's audio processor into analog and connects it to the rear jacks. On the A7V8X, I *think* it's used to do the audio processing as well. The nVidia APU is a tough act to follow in the processing department, so while analog audio output quality may end up the same due to the use of the same CODEC, the nVidia part is probably going to have more capabilities as far as the number of 3D voices it can handle, and how much CPU usage it requires to do it. And then there's the digital-out, which as I understand it, will bypass the CODEC altogether and deliver digital audio directly to compatible speaker systems.

For me, after looking through the pages of benchmarks starting here, I concluded that the nForce2 boards are the way to go from a pure performance perspective, compared to KT333 or KT400. Look at the results and see what you think.

 

[jazool]

well once again have been proven too rash in my decision.. well its the asus nforce one for me then damn.. what a board and $225 canadian.. whew.. too bad newegg has amazing prices only for US though.. mega, if u know any store thats good as newegg but ships to canada as well.. please tell me. thx once again for ur insight

 

[mechBgon]

You might want to send a private message to Yield, he's in Canada and has been down this road before. To send a PM, you have to switch yours on first so you have a little padlock symbol on the right side along with the online lightbulb and stuff. That's done by the Profile button and enable Allow Private Messages.

 

[WalMart1564]

if price is a factor ide look at the Leadtek K7NCR18D-Pro its is from all the reviews ive read a rock solid board/performer

 

[Hockeyfan6781]

I got the asus a7v8x board... breeze to setup.. very stable.. great performance..no problems..

 

[CraigRT]

Got word from MechBgon about this thread!!

good online stores in Canada:

PCCanada
Vibe Computers
Netlink Computers
Canada Computers

There is one more good store.. but I sadly can't remember the URL and it's bookmarked only on my PC at work.

hope this helps...

 

[tbates757]

I'd recommend an nForce2 board, EPOX 8DRA+ seems to be an enthusiast favorite

 

[jazool]

ok I really have to thank everyone for their input here.. you've all been very helpful.. well looks like its the leadtek nforce or the asus one.. the only thing is i couldnt find the leadek board on any of the canadian sites that Yield gave me.. which btw canadacomputers.com hands down has the best prices.. so if anyone can find me an online store thats ships to canada.. and has a reasonable price for the leadtek board.. i'd be happy... i'll be looking as well..